Time Magazine crowned the thousands of women and men who have come forward with their experiences of sexual harassment and this year as their 2017 ‘Person of the Year’ honorees.
Among these individuals were celebrities like Ashley Judd, Taylor Swift, Rose McGowan and Terry Crews. The Silence Breakers also include everyday people like you and me, who took a stand against their own sexual harassment experiences.
Hospitality coordinator, Crystal Washington said that she and six other female employees filed a sexual-harassment suit against the Plaza Hotel for an alleged hostile work environment.
“They asked me if there were other girls … I had to show them that I wasn’t lying. They took me for a joke,” she said in a Time video.
Adama Iwu, a corporate lobbyist, said she had a similar experience in Sacremento. After being groped in front of colleagues at an event, she organized 147 people to sign a petition exposing sexual harassment in California government.
Iwu said she was furious about the incident. “I had a man grope me in front of multiple colleagues and I was tired of wondering if it was something I wore. I was tired of wondering if it was a vibe I was giving off. Other women, they were furious too.”
She went on to say, “We can’t all be crazy. We can’t all be sluts. We can’t all be ‘asking for it.'”
Amanda Schmitt, an art curator, also spoke of her experience saying, “I felt ashamed that I hadn’t spoke out sooner … [for] not having the strength earlier on to make it stop.”
But, Tarana Burke, creator of the #MeToo movement, says that victims should not feel ashamed. “The shame is on the perpetrator. #MeToo can be a conversation starter or it can be the whole conversation. It’s a direct response to that arrogance and that show of power and that bullying that says ‘We won’t be silenced.'”
Watch Time’s Person of the Year video below.
